Palestinian Police Seal Refugee Camp

A Palestinian security officer fires his weapon as others take cover during a gun battle with militants from the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades in the Balata refugee camp, near the west Bank city of Nablus, Monday, Nov. 5, 2007. Gunmen and Palestinian police exchanged fire in the densely populated refugee camp on Monday, injuring five people and renewing tensions between militants and the Palestinian government, which has vowed to disarm gunmen in hopes of restarting Mideast peace negotiations. The gun battle came as Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas met with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in the West Bank town of Ramallah to discuss an upcoming Mideast conference.(AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed) (Majdi Mohammed - AP)

BALATA REFUGEE CAMP, West Bank -- Palestinian police who battled militants in the West Bank's biggest refugee camp for more than 12 hours withdrew early Tuesday with two suspects in custody and a vow that security forces would no longer shy away from entering militant strongholds.

The operation, in which a policeman and eight passers-by were wounded by gunfire, was the first major offensive in President Mahmoud Abbas' campaign to assert control over gunmen and persuade Israel he can implement a future peace deal.

For several years police had not dared patrol the four refugee camps in and around the city of Nablus or the old downtown market district, where armed militants held sway, but Nablus governor Jamal Mohsein said Tuesday that those days were now over.

"We shall post police in all the camps and in the Old City," he said. "In the future, nobody will be able to say that the police cannot go here or there."

The operation was launched around midday Monday as Abbas assured visiting Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that he had begun meeting his short-term peace obligations, including disarming militants and rounding up illegal weapons.

Police marksmen took up positions on rooftops on the edges of the Balata refugee camp, adjoining Nablus, and traded shots with gunmen from the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a violent offshoot of Abbas' Fatah movement.

After midnight two Al Aqsa fighters armed with assault rifles surrendered to police and the operation was wound down.

During the offensive the streets of the camp were littered with rocks and overturned trash containers _ a scene reminiscent of past Israeli army raids. Residents watched from their balconies. Near a mosque, police peeked around a corner, then fired down a narrow street.

Militants had vowed to resist a police presence in Balata.

"They are trying to enter the camp and we will not let them," Nasser Abu Aziz, an Al Aqsa gunman, said in a telephone interview. "I'm in the middle of shooting, I can't talk much," he said, before hanging up.

Ziad al-Ali, a Palestinian security chief, said the Al Aqsa Brigades must disband, noting that nearly all the group's members have accepted an amnesty deal with Israel, brokered by Abbas, in which they agreed to disarm.

Monday's confrontation began after police seized a pistol from an Al Aqsa member, and two of his friends then opened fire on the security forces.